Precision and grace
A Choice of Cowper's Verse. Selected with an introduction by Norman Nicholson. Faber. 96 pp. \ U.K. price £1.95 (cloth), 85p (paper).
William Cowper is probably still best known for “The Diverting History of John Gilpin,” a just favourite in school anthologies for many years. It represents . only one side of a fascinating and very readable poet, however, and this excellent introductory selection by Norman Nicholson may help to bring Cowper’s poetry to a wider audience.
If Cowper’s insanity and his evangelical Anglicanism distracted him from any kind of systematic concentration on poetry, they also freed him to see remarkably freshly. The descriptions of countryside and the seasons in his long poem “The Task” have delightful precision and grace; and the shorter poems offer constantly good-humoured observations of domestic life.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19750823.2.80.7
Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 10
Word Count
132Precision and grace Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33929, 23 August 1975, Page 10
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Press. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Acknowledgements
This newspaper was digitised in partnership with Christchurch City Libraries.